The manslaughter trial of Rabbi Moshe Levinger was postponed Monday for the third time, on this occasion because the Gush Emunim leader’s newly appointed lawyer had not had enough time to review the case.
Levinger is charged with the fatal shooting last September of Kayed Salah, 42, an Arab shoe vendor in Hebron. He also is charged with deliberately damaging Arab property in the predominantly Arab city.
His trial was last postponed on July 13, when Levinger complained he could not find an affordable attorney. The court granted him a postponement and ordered the trial to resume on Monday.
Levinger waited until Sunday to appoint attorney Ya’acov Nehushtan to defend him.
The prosecution contended Monday that the Gush Emunim leader was trying to postpone the case indefinitely, perhaps in the hope that the political atmosphere in the country would change in his favor.
In granting a new extension Monday, Judge Ezra Hadaya said he did not sense a deliberate attempt to continuously put off the trial. But he warned the defense that this would be the last time a postponement would be granted.
As he left the courthouse, Levinger again complained that he was being prosecuted for alleged crimes against Arabs, when there have been more than 1,000 stone-throwing incidents against Jews in the Hebron area.
He said Palestinian leaders who inspire the stone-throwers, such as Sari Nusseibeh, Hanna Siniora and Faisal Husseini, “must be brought to trial, not us.”
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